Pull Up A Chair Gravesham - Anne Langford

I’m meeting poet James McKay for a sneak preview of a new piece of work that will be a part of SILTings , LV21s programme as part of Estuary Festival .    You can sign up to James free newsletter of his poems and writing  here .  A walking adventure around Gravesend focusing on a rather special mythical creature that can be found hiding in different places around the town – a blue porcupine. I’m sworn to secrecy so can’t reveal any locations or insight but the idea is a wonderfully playful mix of history, myth and mystery.   We meet on the Quay by LV21 and I’d settled down with a book of photographs about Old Gravesend when Païvi arrives and introduces me to James and Sarah , the visual artist he is working with. We set off on our walk on a gloriously sunny day, chatting with Païvi before she has to leave. I hear stories about St Andrews Arts Centre, the sale of the mission building next door and artists getting rescued by the fire brigade having got locked in t...

I’m sitting on the windy, bright prom at Gravesend and I call Mary, a Northfleet resident that Mandi connected me too. I explain where I am and she asks if I can see the swans? They are nowhere to be seen and she shares how she hasn’t been to the prom for a long time – she has both been shielding and been very unwell with Covid. She’s recovering and hopeful about getting out to enjoy more soon. She chats about her life and how she moved to Northfleet as a 17 year old, when her Dad got work in the area.                                            She vividly remembers arriving on the train and seeing the blue lake and the impressive sports ground and clubhouse and feeling excited about the move to Northfleet. She has a deep affection for the place that she made her home, she has three children, 6 grandchildren and now a great grandchild – many of whom still live clo...

As I'm waiting to meet someone on St Andrew's Quay a father and his young daughter are fishing together. We chat and I find out about the fish he has caught from here. I'm surprised to learn that you can catch cod here, though it's mainly bass, whiting and flat fish, like flounder and sole.  The little girl is clearly proud of her Dad, and he's proud of the fishing here. I'm reminded hat we can all be very proud of simple things, and that brings us joy and connection. He catches a small fish*, it's  too small to keep and go in the pot, so he  throws it back. He's showing his daughter how to unhook and lets her look at the fish in his hands. He points me to  a chart on the lid of his fishing box, showing the sizes of the fish you can keep and what you have to return.  I wonder what (if?) the fish thinks about it's brief visit to St Andrew's Quay? * I don't write down the name of the fish but I think it's a whiting? 

I don't take many photographs while I'm chatting with Graham  and learning about the own centre from his perspective but after we finish speaking I ramble around and take a few pics of things that I notice. I also notice a better camera would be fun (and result in better photos...) Ok, so bear with me. Yes, this is a photo of a parking payment station. But.  I'm calling this number a lot. Something I'm unused to. I usually use public transport but to help keep things more Covid secure I've borrowed a car. This new ritual of calling to make payment is frustrating and strange, I haven't regularly used a car for more than 15 years. When I was last regularly driving Smartphones, weren't a thing. I used to keep a little collection of change to pay for parking in the dashboard of my car. I think about the little daily practices that change with time - how alien paying on a phone would have seemed back than. How the mundane, everyday things of life are made interes...

It’s a grey day when I meet Graham in front of LV21. Graham is the Gravesend town centre manager and he has a long association with the town. His first job in Gravesend was as St George’s Centre, then working at The Woodville, becoming the Theatre Manager before taking on town centre management. I’ve heard the term before but never really considered what a town centre manager is, or does. Over the course of the next hour I learn that it’s sort of a bit of everything in the pedestrian area of Gravesend – from spotting broken paving slabs and booking repair to managing relationships with shop owners to coordinating events and activities. It currently also involves managing Covid signage and supporting a team of staff making sure that people are observing Covid regulations. Somehow, within the first ten minutes of meeting we are talking about New York and showing each other photos of previous visits. Graham is keen to begin travelling again when restrictions lift – he’s visited NY in ever...

I join an event ‘ Cultural Democracy, Community Development and the Old/New Normal ’, hosted by Dr Stephen Pritchard on Zoom – it’s part of the Belfast Imagine Festival.  Imagine is a festival of Politics and Ideas and I drop into a few events that afternoon. On financial systems and climate breakdown and an analysis of the storming of the US Capitol. We’re still in lockdown and like lots of people my life is now much more online. The rules change, from tomorrow we will be able to meet in groups of six outdoors, how will that feel? I’ve been following Stephen on Twitter ( @etiennelefleur)  for a couple of years, I like the way he writes about culture and community. He’s challenging and kind. From his writing, his work centres ethics and people care in his creative practice. The advert for the event says that, in this talk Stephen will; argue that our creativity is unlimited and liberating, and our cultures are what makes us human. Rather than being exclusive, they are ordinar...

                                                        Gravesend from Tilbury